US denies covert Twitter-style Cuba operation

The United States on Thursday denied it used its overseas aid agency to mount a covert operation on social media to incite unrest against Cuba’s communist leaders. But the US Agency for International Development (USAID) did say it had created a Twitter-style application on which Cubans, subject to strict curbs on expression, were able to “talk freely among themselves” consistent with universal rights and freedoms. White House spokesman Jay Carney said that the program was a “development assistance” scheme designed to allow Cubans facing government restrictions on information access to civil society and was not a secret. USAID is a development agency, not an intelligence agency.